Tickover - gone, then fixed itself

More fine weather, warm too - so took the Zero into work;

The M25 was horrible this evening, 30+ minute crawling along, then the odd thing & reason for this post; I lost tickover - the car was running fine just stopped when I took my foot of the gas.

I stuck with it back to Maidstone, and once in town tickover was  back - must have fixed itself...

                                     SAM
                         I mean it fixed itself.

                                     SPOOR
                         Fixed itself.

                                     DOWSER
                         ... ixed itself.

                                     SPOOR
                         Machines don't fix themselves.

                                     DOWSER
                         ... fix themselves.

                                     SPOOR
                         He's tampered with it, Dowser.

(c) BRAZIL  (Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard & Charles McKeown)

hmmm...

I don't think it was fuel - that should have made running lumpy, nothing got particularly hot, perhaps a bad connection to the IACV?

The headlights were on, and volts a little low, I guess due to the load + tickover - possibly lose alternator belt?

Something to mull over

Update 26/9/13 - I caused the same effect today, clear run 80+ miles round trip, then sitting in traffic had the main beam lights on - switched on the heater fan, volts dropped to 12.2v and tick-over went lumpy.

Update 17/2/14 - Has not re-occured, tick over is rock solid. Battery has been fully charged (if it was that), IACV 12v feed now taken from a different source (if it was that). nothing conclusive.

Half hood - less than perfect

No more stalling, time to actually cut some cloth and at least have a go, First up a mock up with an old sheet which let me think through some decisions around the sides & provides a rough pattern for cutting the roof fabric:

I decided to velcro the roof to the supporting straps, hopefully this will give me some flexibility on fit:

Wrinkly!  Probably the wrong tension on the sewing machine.

The sag in the middle is ok, this is just sitting on the velcro straps with no attachment at the back & no
tension in the roof itself:

The windscreen is the most complex part, and partly a problem of my own doing since I dont want a line of poppers around the front edge. The webbing is stitched into the front hem which locates the hooks and 2mm aluminium bar  - the whole thing is meant to give the front edge stability and stop it lifting in wind - not there yet though its still very flexible at the moment:

I'm using 2mm round aluminium bar along the front edge - it might work better with a 10mm flat bar sitting flush on the top or front of the windscreen surround...

Not sure yet - the result isn't great - still good enough to keep going but this might be the first try which is a learning exercise for doing it properly a second time.

Half hood - small steps

A little work on the half hood, theres no real plan here;

First up some 40mm webbing straps that will run from the windscreen to the back panel, lift the dot fasteners rather than poppers give a rock solid fastening. At the back these straps sit under the lip of the boot cover so nothing is visible: 

I created a couple more of the 'hooks' - these clip on to the catches on the back of the windscreen and dive over the top to hold the front edge of the hood in place:

All fine so far - the basic hood structure looks fine. Once the roof panel is in place there will be extra lateral webbing too holding the sides near the wheel arch on the back. I have the central fixing point on the windscreen too - it may just have a hook assembly to stop the middle lifting under air pressure.

...and another couple of lift the dot fasteners on the windscreen pillars at the front will provide tension around the leading edge:

I have mocked up the front section of hood to practice my stiching. There is an aluminium rod running along this front edge to give it shape & the plan is the hooks above will sit in the front seam and give everything structure:

Needs some thought before I do any more - to think through:

1. Front seam assembly so I get a neat visible seam on the outside, hold the shaping aluminium bar inside the seam and provide pockets for the webbing hooks underneath.

2. Hood panels themselves, the mock up windscreen part emphasises this is a 3D rather than flat shape - I need to decide whether I'm going for a single panel or the multiple panels as per the paper model. More panels in theory will allow the correct shape, on the other hand its also more complex so will highlight poor tailoring skills.

3. Hood panel fixing to the webbing structure - sew directly or loops & velcro so it can be adjusted/tensioned independently.


This feels like the sort of job that needs doing twice - i.e. first go to get 80% of the way there, and then re-do the whole thing to get a half decent result.

Designed and Built in Britain

This really is just vanity - a couple of enamelled Union Flags to show her origins: